HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Justin Thomas found the zone on Thursday and had all facets of his game clicking. About the only complaint he could have was missing two 5-foot putts – one for par on No. 10, which resulted in his lone bogey of the day and the other at 18 when he could have set the course record at Harbour Town Golf Links.
Instead, he settled for matching the course-record with a 10-under 61 to grab the opening-round lead at the RBC Heritage.
“I feel like I didn’t do anything crazy,” he said. “Just kind of got rolling with it.”
Thomas may be a candidate to be the president of the Pete Dye fan club. Last month, he tied the course record at Dye’s Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, shooting 10-under 62 in the second round at a course where he won the Players Championship in 2021. Of Dye’s design at Harbour Town, he raved, “I wish we played more places like it. I think more architects should design places like this. It kind of stands of test of time, I think. Especially if we continue to get weather like this and if these fairways get firm, the greens are already getting firm, it’s going to be everything we want by the end of the week.
“I just think it’s a really, really cool place that requires you to think on every single shot you’re hitting, and you can’t get lazy.”
Thomas has the most rounds of 62 or better on Tour since 2015 with 14. He prepped hard for this week after having a bit of a letdown week at the Masters, where he made the cut but finished T-36.
“It was just about going out and doing it, and it was nice to do so,” Thomas said.
Thomas rolled in 165 feet of putts en route to matching the course record belonging to David Frost and Troy Merritt. Thomas carded 11 birdies and poured in three different putts of more than 30 feet: a 33-footer at four, a 36-footer at seven and a 38-footer at 17.
“Another snake in the cup for Thomas,” exclaimed PGA Tour Radio’s Fred Albers when the final birdie of the day dropped. “Outrageous, egregious, preposterous, he’s 10 under par.”
Thomas wasn’t the only one to take advantage of docile winds and perfect conditions for scoring in the Low Country.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler birdied six holes on the front nine and shot a bogey-free 7-under 64, hitting 15 greens in regulation. The world No. 1 still is seeking his first victory of the season and described his Thursday round as a good learning experience. He highlighted his tee shot at the par-3 17th where he and caddie Ted Scott were debating between 8- and 9-iron with the wind off the left and at his back.
“It’s a really hard shot because the greens are firm, and Teddy and I just did a really good job of talking through the shot, figuring out what club we wanted to hit, and I executed the shot the way we wanted to,” Scheffler explained. “At times this year, maybe a little doubt would have crept into my mind about how I was feeling, and just standing there on 17 was able to get up there and just hit a really good iron shot and be committed to what I was doing, and the result was good following that.”
Scheffler shared second place with Russell Henley, the winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. Henley birdied four of the last five holes to keep within striking distance of Thomas.
Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 RBC Heritage champion, matched Brian Campbell, who is playing the tournament for the first time not far from his adopted hometown, and Players Championship runner-up J.J. Spaun, with 65.
Thomas ranked first in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green and second in Strokes Gained: Putting. He birdied four of the first five holes and closed with birdies at three of his final four holes. He knocked his approach from 180 yards to 5 feet at 18, which he called his best shot of the day, to give himself a legitimate shot at shattering the course record.
“It was a nice hold 8-iron and just hit our number a lot today, so it was nice to finish with that,” he said.
But Thomas, who is seeking his first win since the 2022 PGA Championship, couldn’t convert, lipping out his birdie effort at the last. Still, Thomas was in good spirits after claiming the lead.
“It feels like the easiest walk in the world compared to last week,” Thomas said. “You walk off the golf course four days in a row feeling like you’ve been kicked in the teeth.”
On Thursday at Harbour Town, Thomas was kicking butt and taking names.
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